Vera Mercer (born in Berlin in 1936), one of the grandes dames of photography, looks back on an extensive life's work in which food, restaurants and markets play the leading roles. After training as a dancer, she married the future Eat Art artist Daniel Spoerri in 1958 and moved with him to Paris. Here she immersed herself in the artistic avant-garde, photographing artists such as Marcel Duchamps and Niki de St.-Phalle and, for the first time, food in the famous Les Halles market halls.

In the 2000s, she began to compose still lifes in the traditional sense. She adopted motifs from old master paintings to develop completely new, yet distinctly contemporary images. These photographs have brought her international renown.
Light and shadow play a central role in setting the scene effectively, often mysteriously. Many photos show an opulent abundance of flowers, vegetables, fruits – and animals. Again and again, we encounter whole fish, crabs, animal heads and unplucked poultry. This brings the shadow of death into the images. Other images appear very calm, almost meditative.

In addition, from the 1960s onwards, the photographer repeatedly took photos of people in cafés. Here we encounter unadorned (because secretly photographed) strangers dreaming, bored or enthusiastically eating, who make us smile and who embody the atmosphere of their time. Vera Mercer runs several restaurants together with her second husband, such as the Boiler Room in Omaha, USA, which opened in 2009. The artist decorates it with her photos, and new images are created here. Eating – looking – photographing – eating is an interlocking chain of actions in her life.

From 2010 onwards, Mercer developed a new group of images: portraits paired with still lifes. The objects become accessories and characteristics of the people photographed. The effect is both painterly and astonishingly present.

The exhibition shows a selection of particularly impressive examples from all the groups of works mentioned.
A creative and culinary accompanying programme enriches the exhibition experience.